Destroy Erase Improve is often regarded as both the first 'true' Meshuggah album and Meshuggah's defining record. This is because, while the thrash metal of Contradictions Collapse is still present, it is blended with the djent-style the band created and is known for today. Really, Destroy Erase Improve is a transitional album. It's not as cold and mechanical as its follow-up, Chaosphere, but it is certainly moreso than its predecessor. From front-to-back, it is also Meshuggah's most consistently enjoyable record. Unlike later releases, where the constant chugging blurs together after a while, Destroy Erase Improve manages to hold listener attention for most of its duration (tracks eight and nine are the exceptions). Conceptually, it is strong as well. The title refers to the band breaking down their sound and redefining themselves. There's even some dark humour in the "Acrid Placidity" song title-- it being the only clean track on the record. Overall, Destroy Erase Improve is a landmark metal record. 4.4

Less "out-there" than other Meshuggah releases, this has a unique sound among their discography for being a tad more enjoyable. Credit goes to the more catchy hooks. This maybe less game-changing, but its a game a larger audience can admire, it isn't trying to push the boundaries on every song, and for that it actually sounds more diverse than newer content like Koloss, due to changing volume levels.

Ramps up the progressive elements and sheds all but a residue of the thrash origins of the band, marking the first glimpse of what they'd become. Still doesn't have the density of the later albums but makes the most of the space it therefore does have, with a lot more subtle harmonic and ambient details. An oddity and a classic but not yet fully unleashed.

Meshuggah is one of those bands that is hard to listen to, because of the abundant odd time meters and repetition. While I am one who is not a fan of superfluous repetition, Meshuggah seems to make it work on this incredible album filled with some of the weirdest rhythms, strangest jazz influences, and oddest lyrics. A brilliant album that is a 4 musically, a 5 because of it's uniqueness, but at times it is hard to listen to/grasp a song because of it's odd timing, so a 4.5 is what "Destroy Erase Improve" deserves.

Destory Erase Improve is one of Meshuggah's finest and most accessible works. This album, since its 1995 release, truly raised the bar for metal in terms of super heavy, super technical, super polyrhythmic music. It (along with the 'None' EP) almost singlehandedly invented 'djent'. The complex grooves explored in this album create some of the most exciting, high tempo syncopated music you will ever hear, yet with a dynamic and proggy balance throughout.